


moving pictures

by Pandasushiroll



Category: Marvel
Genre: Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, James "Rhodey" Rhodes is a Good Bro, M/M, Tony is a Single Pringle
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-12
Updated: 2020-05-12
Packaged: 2021-03-03 05:41:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 758
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24149875
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pandasushiroll/pseuds/Pandasushiroll
Summary: Sometimes Tony's life feels like a movie.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers, Steve Rogers/Tony Stark, Tony Stark/Stephen Strange
Comments: 5
Kudos: 19





	moving pictures

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Branday](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Branday/gifts).



> A gift for the looooovely Brandy. Congrats on becoming admin you precious bean. :3

Tony’s life feels like a movie.

Sometimes it's like a fast-paced, action-packed nightmare. Hurtling by so quickly he doesn’t have time to process one thing from the next. Other times it drags on. Crawling by. Someone’s got their finger on the record and they won’t let it spin freely. 

Sometimes the cinematography is bright, sun-kissed and vivid. Other times it’s muted, dark, bereft.

People pass through his life like movies through the cinema. 

For a long time, he has Steve. Well, sort of. He has Steve until Steve fucks him over for Bucky. Bucky has Steve now. ( _ Wellll _ , he always had Steve.) Steve is the warm compress after a long day. Honeyed kisses and a toothy grin. Steve is classic like apple pie. He never goes out of style. Except for when he does. He’s always there. Until he leaves.

Then he has Stephen. Well. Actually. No one ever really  _ has  _ Stephen. He’s like a beautiful ghost. You can see him and feel him, but you can never quite  _ grasp.  _ Good luck putting a pin in that one. He doesn’t care about Stephen. At least. He tries very hard not to care about Stephen. Stephen is a dick. The only reliable thing about him is that he’s always unreliable. The sex is good though.

What is it with him and Steves? 

It dawns on him that he’s also had a fling with another guy, named Steven. And that guy was just. Honestly, a placeholder. A way to fill the time. A whiskey fever dream.

Tony doesn’t get attached to things. His father teaches him how futile the sentiment is. So he knows, going into all three Steve/Stephen/Steven affairs, that it’s a terrible idea. He shouldn’t care, and he doesn’t.

But Tony lies more than he does anything else. 

He lies to Pepper and The Kid. He tries to lie to Rhodey, but it doesn’t really work. 

Rhodey is a good friend. Honestly, probably more than he deserves. Rhodey is the one who scowls at Steve when he sees him in the hallway in passing and the one who insists that Stephen  _ explain his absence.  _ He isn’t phased by the bewildered look Steve gives him or the rigid apology. He actively rolls his eyes when the wizard brushes him off.

Tony’s life is like a movie and Rhodey tries his best to direct it.

There is always  _ someone. _ Rhodey doesn’t want him wasting away on people that aren’t worth it. He tries to make the Steve/Stephen/Steven affair a Very Minimal deal for Tony. 

One day he shows up with a box. It contains a heating pad, a bottle of whiskey, and handcuffs. Tony coos at him but his friend shoulders passed him and sets the box on his new marble countertop.

“Again?” He looks stricken by the waste of money.

Tony has more money than he knows what to do with. Remodeling sections of his house helps him deal with the icky feelings the Steve/Stephen/Steven affair bring up. Tony shrugs because  _ Eh.  _

“Have you come to seduce me?” He teases. 

Rhodey frowns. “No. I’ve come to prove a point.”

“Oh?”

“Oh, indeed.” He says smugly, lifting the heating pad out first. “This is the entire reason you dated Steve. He comforted you when you felt shitty.” 

Tony regards the heating pad with a wrinkled nose. “Where did you buy that?”

“CVS.” 

That’s actually pretty on brand for Steve Rogers. “Nice.”

The handcuffs are next and Tony makes a small delighted noise that Rhodey scowls at. “This should be self-explanatory.”

“I’m sorry, sir. I’ve never seen those before. What on  _ Earth _ do you use them for?”

“...Tony.” He says, stern.

“Rhodey,” Tony repeats, equally as stern.

A long-suffering sigh. “Obviously you liked Stephen because he catered to your particular tendencies and because he was like the opposite of Steve.”

Well, that stings a little. He didn’t have to call him out on that. “What particular tendencies?”

“I hate you.”

Tony laughs. “And the whiskey?”

“I’m pretty sure this is what you were drinking when you decided that Steven with a “v”--actually no this applies to both of them-- would be a good idea.”

Tony has to shrug. “That’s fair.”

Rhodey likes to point out Tony’s mistakes. He’s very Traditional, which is something Tony considers to be very boring, but because it’s Rhodey, he accepts it.They open the bottle and muse over several other mistakes in their life. 

Tony’s life is like a movie.

Today it’s one of the “feel good” friendship movies. 


End file.
